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Luke Wilson has gone from being a good ol’ boy to a good ol’ man in the blink of an eye — and he’s not all that happy about it.

It seems like only yesterday that the hunky 38-year-old Texan was Hollywood’s boyfriend of choice, both onscreen (Legally Blonde) and off (Drew Barrymore).

But in his latest film, Death at a Funeral, in local theatre now, he plays the guy who — gasp! — doesn’t get the girl. That’s not a spoiler, because from the minute you see Wilson’s earnest, super-straight guy in pursuit of luscious Zoe Saldana, you just know he doesn’t stand a chance against younger, hipper James Marsden (who funnily enough is only two years younger than Wilson in real life).

“Yeah, that’s kind of strange, isn’t it?” drawls Wilson over the phone from Los Angeles. “I think that’s the first time it’s ever happened to me in the movies, although, it’s much more like real life, unfortunately.”

What you notice instantly about Wilson is the accent. Born and raised in Dallas, Tex., his professional persona has always been kind of nebulously middle American.

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But in real life, his Southern roots come through loud and clear.

“It’s funny about that,” he chuckles. “One of the first jobs I ever auditioned for, I finished and the director called out, ‘That’s good, but now let’s try one without the accent.’ I looked at him and said, ‘That was the one without the accent.’ From then on, I’ve always tried to leave my roots at home.”

Home, of course, was Dallas, where he was born on Sept. 21, 1971, the youngest of three brothers who all went into show business (Andrew, the oldest, and Owen, in the middle.)

All three of them share the same middle name, Cunningham, which was their mother’s maiden name. Wilson claims they were all christened that way in tribute to their grandfather. “Everybody says he was the most amazing man,” Wilson recalls, “but he died when I was 3, so I never really got to know him.”

Wilson’s dad was a PBS executive who “used to take me to the movies with him when I was as young as 6. A lot of people wouldn’t have approved of the films he took me too, but they didn’t do me any harm.” (For some examples, look at the names in Wilson’s Five Faves sidebar.)

Even though he admits to being fascinated by film, it was athletics that governed Wilson’s life through high school and into his early years at Occidental College.

But then his brothers teamed up to work with Wes Anderson on a short film called Bottle Rocket about three brothers and so, as if planned by fate, Wilson joined the project.

Originally a 13-minute short, its triumphant screening at Sundance in 1993 led to it becoming a feature film. All three Wilsons brothers moved to Hollywood and the opportunities came knocking.

“I took everything that came my way,” Wilson gleefully admits about those early days, “and then people started saying to me, ‘Say, how come you always play the boyfriend and I realized I was being incredibly typecast.”

Over the years he tried to break the mould, most noticeably in 2008’s Henry Poole is Here, but — more often than not — he found himself recreating past “boyfriend” roles in sequels to Legally Blonde and Charlie’s Angels.

“And then, it just stopped,” says Wilson, with a hint of surprise in his voice. “I’m the loser who doesn’t get the girl in Death at a Funeral and I’ve got a new HBO series coming up with Laura Dern called Enlightened, where we’re divorced.

“Man, I never got to be the husband or the father. I went right from the BF to the divorced dude. I don’t think that’s fair.”

There’s a hint of irony in Wilson’s voice, because he willingly says that “I love being an actor who works, that’s what makes me happy.”

Still, in the same breath, he observes that “the business goes up and down and it’s hard to decide what to actually do. Movies have slowed down in a way and people think I get offered a lot more things than I actually do.”

Is that one of the reasons Wilson can be seen all over the TV screens these days in a series of commercials for AT&T?

“It was one of those things that seemed like a good idea,” he says. “They were trying to sell a product and they wanted me to get their point across.” A pause. “Hey, it’s just work.”

Rumours hit the Internet a few weeks ago that Wilson has been difficult on the AT&T set, rumours since categorically denied by executives at AT&T.

Wilson would rather not discuss the gossip, just like he prefers not to make any official statement about his brother Owen’s suicide attempt in 2007.

“My brothers and I have always been close and in the past few years we’ve gotten even closer,” is all he’ll say. When I ask Wilson if he is happy in his personal and emotional life, the question takes him by surprise.

“Happy? I guess so. I wouldn’t mind living someplace else besides Los Angeles. I mean, man, I’ve been here for 15 years now. I’m 38 years old. The time has just blown by. I always thought I wanted things to get a little bit more in order before I solidified my personal life, but look at me. I’m not the boyfriend anymore. I’m too old for that.

“I have friends who are in their 20s and already have families and I think, ‘Wow, where did they get the courage to do that?’ I’ve been making my movies and going from film to film without thinking about it and the next thing you know, a decade has gone by.”

There’s a long pause as Wilson thinks about things. Then he laughs.

“You know what’s funny? Working on Death at a Funeral, I would spend days at a time with Tracy Morgan. Just the two of us in that car. Man, he’s the funniest person I ever met.

“But he also likes to zero in and find something he can needle you about. He decided I was this Texas hick and he kept making jokes about pork and beans and cowboy food and stuff like that.

“That’s who he thought I was and maybe he was right. I love Texas. I’m proud I came from there and maybe, in the end, that’s where I really belong.”

And at this point — if it was a movie instead of a phone interview — Luke Wilson would probably ride ruefully off into the sunset.

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